“Judy!” she exclaimed. “Goodness! child, how you frightened me!” she finished with a good-natured laugh. But as she noticed the mountain girl's appearance, the laugh died on her lips, and her face was grave with puzzled concern.
Poor Judy's black hair was uncombed and dishevelled. The sallow, old-young face was distorted with passion, and the beady eyes glittered with the light of an insane purpose.
“What is it, Judy?” asked Betty Jo. “What in the world is the matter?”
“What'd you-all come back for?” demanded Judy with sullen menace in every word. “I done told him not ter let you. Hit 'pears ter me youuns ought ter have more sense.”
Alarmed at the girl's manner, Betty Jo thought to calm her by saying, gently: “Why, Judy, dear, you are all excited and not a bit like yourself. Tell me what troubles you. I came back because I love to be here with Auntie Sue, of course. Why shouldn't I some if Auntie Sue likes to have me?”
“You-all are a-lyin',” returned Judy viciously. “But you-all sure can't fool me. You-all come back 'cause he's here.”
A warm blush colored Betty Jo's face.
Judy's voice raised shrilly as she saw the effect of her words.
“You-all knows dad burned well that's what you come back for. But hit ain't a-goin' ter do you no good; hit sure ain't. I done told him. I sure warned him what'd happen if he let you come back. I heard you-all a-talkin' yesterday evenin' all 'bout his book an' what a great man that there publisher-feller back East 'lows he's goin' ter be. An' I kin see, now, that you-all has knowed hit from the start, an' that's why you-all been a-fixin' ter git him away from me. I done studied hit all out last night; but I sure ain't a-goin' ter let you do hit.”
As she finished, the mountain girl, who had worked herself into a frenzy of rage, moved stealthily toward Betty Jo, and her face, with those blazing black eyes, and its frame of black unkempt hair, and its expression of insane fury, was the face of a fiend.